Game Review: 'Dark Manor' app fuses two game styles into one

4:03 AM,
Jul. 21, 2013

Written by

Marc Saltzman
Special for USA TODAY

Not sure whether you feel like playing a "hidden object" game or a building simulation? With Big Fish Games' Dark Manor: A Hidden Object Mystery, you can have best of both (under)worlds.

While this hybrid concept works for the most part, this new ghost-filled game -- for iPad and iPhone, but not iPod touch -- isn't a hands-down winner. Also, be aware this app employs a "freemium" pay model. So you can expect to be hit up for micropayments to get the most out of the game.

Taking place in New Orleans during the Roaring '20s, the story is about your character inheriting a haunted mansion from a long-lost ...